Paying taxes on online poker winnings and claiming losses.

[ronaldo]

After seeing another thread this prompted me to think about winning money playing poker online.

Would that money be taxable?

If it IS taxable, would that make LOSSES deductible?

IF it was your career and you made $200,000 one year, surely you'd have claim it, but if the next year you lost $50,000 would the IRS or CCRA let you right it off as a business loss?

If YES, than why couldn't someone who's just goofing around say they're trying to BECOME a professional poker player and write off $2,000 in losses?

Thoughts?

[boneprone]

I write off gambling every year.

Yeah, if you claim earnings on it, then certainly write off the expenses..

If you made deposits to your account VIA a credit card the doccumentaion is pretty easy to log.


Id say anything over 3k go ahead and claim and write it off.
Anything under dont worry about it.

[boneprone]

Every year around November I take a withdraw skim of my money in the sports book. That way I can get the cash and then write off the expense deposits Ive made throughout the year..

If you wait till January to make the withdraw, and dont cliam any earnings for the current year, all those deposits you made go to waste and you wont be able to write em off.

The only time you can write off gambling expense is when you have it as an earning.

You can never write off gambling as a loss, only as and against an earning

[KC]

Generally you can use your losses to offset winnings, but you can't just deduct the losses. Check with your CPA. Detailed records are required though.